Hiberna Carmen
by Alex the Anachronistic
Summary: Severus Snape knew how to bloody dance when he was a student? I thought he learned how from Lucius. But never mind, he's dancing with Lily Evans and probably going to get her pneumonia.


DISCLAIMER: I am making no money off of this, and this site isn't either. This is purely fan-fiction written by a weird person who has absolutely nothing better to do than write this stuff. I don't own Harry Potter, Hogwarts, Snape, etc. J.K.R. does.

**Hiberna Carmen**

"Severus?"

The boy was started from his reverie. It was his last year in Hogwarts, and the most painful he had ever known.

"Go away, wretch," he countered uncivilly, not looking at nor caring about whomever spoke to him. Instead, he found himself anti-socially turning back to the window. Snowflakes drifted downwards, spiraling in a thoroughly cliché manner beyond, settling on the stone ledge. It was so cold out there. Severus' greasy adolescent nose met the glass, and he admired the effect of his breath on the silvery pane.

"Come on, Severus. There's someone who wants to see you outside."

Severus grunted. "That depends what you mean by outside."

"Out of the common room." There was a delicate pause. "I think it has something to do with that snake you put in that mudblood Lily Evans' cauldron yesterday."

"What makes you say that?"

"It was her."

Snape started. What? Lily? To see him?

His interest was peaked. "You mean Evans, right?"

"Yesssssssss . . . who else were we talking about again?"

Snape shook his legs out and stood, only ostensibly reluctant to vacate the window seat he had perched ever since after breakfast that morning. Seeing how it was already three in the afternoon, that was a good long time for the young wizard to laze about, doing nothing.

"I'm going. Thanks Janus."

The said Janus, however, was already gone.

………………

"Severus!"

Lily was waiting a few feet away from the Slytherin common room door. She looked a bit hurt.

"You haven't been around all day."

"No. I did not think it necessary to show for lunch. Not hungry."

Lily, with familiarity, drew her arms around Snape solemnly, pleadingly. "Let us go to our spot," she insisted, taking his hand.

"Haven't you noticed? It's snowing." Severus' words fell, though, as lightly as the fluffy flakes covering every tier of Hogwarts.

"So?" Lily, then, threw off her own cloak, to place it around Severus' shoulders. He shrugged it off again, and placed it on her own.

"Don't do that."

"It's all right, Severus! I have an extra muffler for myself. I'll be all right."

I must note that this entire conversation took place in whispers.

………………

Soon they were outside, sitting one of the furthest recesses of the gardens.

"The roses all have died," Severus remarked gloomily. "No flowers whatsoever."

"No, indeed." Lily laid her head on his shoulder. Oh, how his pulse raced! But he was not showing it, no. He never would show her. A man's emotions were best concealed, for they could be one's own downfall . . .

She cuddled close to him, and they watched the snow drifts mounting higher and higher.

Finally, Severus broke the silence. "But I would say . . . a lily is far more precious than a rose."

Lily felt the thrill of his heartbeat as she nuzzled closer into him. He was burning hot to touch, though both of them shivered with the cold.

How had the two become so close, she wondered vaguely. Why did they always feel the need to keep away from others when they were together? And why couldn't she just not ask herself any more questions?

"Do you remember last spring," she murmured softly, "When we danced together?"

Snape's eyelids fluttered as he looked to the soft outline of a white lattice gazebo before them.

"Yes," he replied softly.

Why did people hate him? Lily wondered. Severus was not all as bad as they thought. He had some morbid dreams and some disturbing ideas, but other than that, he was a nice boy. At least, to her he was. But only when they were alone; in front of anyone else, he treated her as he had always treated her, worse than all the rest. So she got the best of him, and the worst of him. Why could not the people who got nothing from him accept him, not challenge him, and want him? Probably, she decided, because people were greedy. They only did want for themselves . . .

"Do you want to dance again, Lily?"

The words almost froze on his lips, but he had already said them by the time they threatened to do so.

Lily nodded into Snape's chest. They stood up together, then walked onto the gazebo, hand in hand.

"What song?" queried Severus, bowing low.

Lily shuddered as she curtseyed in her denim jeans and sweater. How did Snape always manage to look elegant in whatever he was wearing? Because it was all black. How classy. Maybe she should take a leaf out of his book . . .

"Something by Tchaikovsky. Remember? That Russian muggle composer."

Severus nodded. "I know him well."

The pair stepped together, and Severus began to hum quietly. Lily recognized the piece immediately to be from Sleeping Beauty, the gorgeous waltz from the first act. Her lips moved slowly, keeping time to Snape's vocal talents admirably.

"Hmmmmmmmm, hmmmmmmm, hmmmmmmmm, hmm hmm hmmm hmmm hmmmmm hmmm hmmmmmm hmmmmm hmmmmmmmmmmm . . . "

"One two three, One two three, One two three, One two three."

It might have been one of the slowest renditions of the Sleeping Beauty waltz, popularized later by Disney with the words 'I know you from once upon a dream' or something of that nature. But this witch and wizard had never watched the Disney classic. And they did not care if they were a bit slower than the normal tempo. And they did not even care about being cold anymore, either. They were together, and that was all that mattered to them.

Suddenly, Severus stopped. Lily looked at him in questioning, but then got a pleasant surprise. Their lips met, and everything seemed to dissolve around them. The snow seemed to flurry like it never had flurried before. The wind picked up and whistled through the arbor nearby, through the latticework of the gazebo, through their shirts and jackets and furs. But their eyes never left each other's, and their lips never parted. Alone, in the gazebo, amid the snowdrifts, hearing the fierce whispering of Aquilo through the pine trees.

If they had been seen, they migh have been captured and put in a snow-globe. No one would ever have though the scene between the lovers amiss.

_I wrote this because I thought Snape should have a happy memory or two, since I am so fond of killing him off._

_By the way, the title means 'Winter Song' in Latin. Just because I love the language. _

_"'Harrius Potter. Advena noster –celleberrimus.' [ . . . Snape inquit, 'et ob impertiam tuam, Potter, punctum Gryffindorensibus afuretur.'"_ _–Latin translation of _Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. _Among Snape's first lines in the series. _

_Snape's going to die at midnight. Ten minutes. There's no way he can't. This is in his blessed memory. Review, please. _


End file.
